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The world of developing and managing new products is full of ambiguity and challenge. For those of us who face this world daily, it can be helpful to remember others who have ‘been there’ and overcome the obstacles. Their inspiration and time-tested wisdom can point us forward as we navigate the ups and downs of our careers. In this post, we have compiled many of our favorite quotes from inventors, scientists and entrepreneurs — words that can inspire all of us to keep forging ahead.

On Perseverance:

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford

“We always want to create something new out of nothing, and without research, and without long hard hours of effort. But there is no such things as a quantum leap. There is only dogged persistence—and in the end you make it look like a quantum leap.” – Sir James Dyson

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” – Steve Jobs

“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” – Guy Kawasaki, AllTop

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” – Richard Branson

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“The short successes that can be gained in a brief time and without difficulty are not worth much.” – Henry Ford

“All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed–only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.” – Nicola Tesla

“The key to success is failure… Success is made of 99 percent failure.” – Sir James Dyson

“We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” -Marie Curie

On Imagination and Innovation

“I’m as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.” – Steve Jobs

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

“If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” – Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” – Steve Jobs

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

“You are just as likely to solve a problem by being unconventional and determined as by being brilliant.” – Sir James Dyson

“All sorts of things can happen when you’re open to new ideas and playing around with things.” – Stephanie Kwolek

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” – Thomas Edison

On Continuous Learning:

“My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had — everyday I’m learning something new.” – Richard Branson

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” – Bill Gates

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein

“Basically, I have been compelled by curiosity.” – Mary Leakey

“Enjoy failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success.” – Sir James Dyson

On Risk-Taking:

A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. – Grace Hopper

Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” – Howard Schultz

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.” – Mark Twain

On Focus:

“If you keep your eye on the profit, you’re going to skimp on the product. But if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow.” – Steve Jobs

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison

On Listening to the Customer:

“When we create stuff, we do it because we listen to the customer, get their inputs and also throw in what we’d like to see, too. We cook up new products. You never really know if people will love them as much as you do.” – Steve Jobs

“If I had asked the public what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” – Henry Ford

Product Management is a Team Sport

“Like the conductor or quarterback, the product manager is an individual who only succeeds by bringing the whole team along with them, and by working together towards a common goal.”

“The product manager’s job, therefore, is not to manage people, nor to direct them, but to lead them by clearly articulating the common goal. They should provide the context the team is working in – from the problems and pain points customers have, to the competitive environment the company is operating in.”

“The product manager’s job is to bring the user problems to the team, and then facilitate the conversations and help connect the dots as the whole team designs the solutions to them. ….It’s so incredibly valuable to involve the whole team and their diverse mindsets and experience when designing solutions, that it would simply be foolish not to.”

Could 3D Printing provide a cost-effective means of replicating missing switch knobs for the historic Battleship NORTH CAROLINA? Alex Dydula, volunteer researcher, sought the answer to that question and contacted CADJockey regarding computer-aided part design.

The battleship, commissioned in 1941 and retired six years later, is now a memorial and museum in the port of downtown Wilmington, N.C. Dydula is leading the current effort to restore transfer panels inside the ship’s gun houses. Missing from the panels are multiple switch knobs that gave operators manual control over communications between the ship’s electro-mechanical computer and the weaponry it maneuvered. With the communications of this era dependent upon wired connections, this manual operation became necessary in the event that specific sections of the ship were hit by artillery. …

Making tech product development news in recent weeks are solid-state drives (SSDs) with speeds up to 5G bps and the first optical-only chip that can permanently store data.

While the optical chip needs more development work before commercially ready, it has the potential to replace SSDs as storage devices of the future.

Colliding electrons create heat and resistance that limits the speed of electronic chips. Light-based circuits are immune to that issue, but all ’nano-photonic’ chips to date have been volatile – requiring a power source – which prohibits their use for data storage. …

Building on a history of glassmaking that dates back to the Roman empire, an MIT team is using 3D printing technology in a process reminiscent of one ancient technique that coiled strands of molten glass.

MIT’s Mediated Matter group has unveiled G3DP, a first of its kind optically transparent glass printing process. “G3DP is an additive manufacturing platform designed to print optically transparent glass,” the group reports on their blog. The development “carries significant implications for all things glass. … The project synthesizes modern technologies, with age-old established glass tools and technologies producing novel glass structures with numerous potential applications.” Leaders of the development team are Neri Oxman and Peter Houk.

Commenting on the team’s announcement, 3dprintingindustry.com writes: “With this technology, the group will begin to test various architectural systems relying on 3D printed glass parts, which will allow the MIT group to design geometrically complex components, including structures with internal channels for distributing air, water, and biological matter in unique ways.” …

Google’s driverless cars have been in the headlines lately, with the “real life” road tests taking place in California this summer. This follows on the heels of the first U.S. coast-to-coast trip by an automated car completed in April through the efforts of auto-parts maker Dephi, testing its technology.

Autonomous or robotic car technology may be the flashiest, “sci-fi” development in the automotive world’s application of M2M communications, but it’s far from the only one. …

For a product development project, the missing piece may be a person – someone who collaborates with the company team, adding creativity, energy and perspective.

New product development is frequently challenged by conflicting business priorities, lack of funds, market conditions and internal politics. Engaging a key outside collaborator can be the solution for clearing roadblocks and moving the product to success.

This key player will wear many hats: visionary, advisor, coach – to name a few. The traits that lead to success in this role are similar to those of entrepreneurs and include the following: …

Reducing time and cost of production without sacrificing quality is the goal of every manufacturer. 3D Printing is achieving it.

CADJockey, in association with Bi-Link and 3D Systems, works with product developers, engineers and entrepreneurs to create test products, injection mold tooling and short-run production in timeframes and costs that are almost unbelievably low. 3D Systems’ ProJet 3500 HD Max makes it possible. …

Have a concept for a new product? Take it to the next level at the new Bi-Link Hardware Store in Morrisville, N.C.

This center for product innovation and development supports serious design engineers and entrepreneurs, providing co-working space, non-competitive collaboration, hi-tech hardware and more. The CADJockey guys can often be found there working on their own development projects and consulting with others.

The Morrisville location, the first of several planned in the U.S., held its grand opening November 5. CADJockey’s own Stefan Stalgren participated along with Bi-Link executives and author Sarah Miller Caldicott, great grandniece of Thomas Edison. …